World countries showed their
determination in peace and security, especially
by the establishment of the United Nations,
after the Second World War. War, might be
the last mean to be applied, after this period.
Instead of war, only in certain cases, power
can be used, with the authorization of UN,
which is responsible to maintain international
peace and security. Having a very important
place in international law, "the use
of power", was also the source of inspiration
for the last book of Enver Bozkurt. Bozkurt's
book, in which the use of power in UN system
is analyzed, presented both to students as
a textbook and to readers as a contemporary
book.
The first edition of the book (Atlas Kitabevi,
Konya 1996) was published under the (Turkish)
title of "The Use of Power in the UN
System and the Case of Gulf Crisis" as
inspired by the Gulf Crisis, which occupied
the agenda of the world in 1990's. It is a
clear reality that the assumption that the
Gulf Crisis would lose its affectivity by
the end of 1990's, turned out to be wrong
as of today. So the author, indicated in the
preface of the second edition that he needed
a new edition by considering the significance
of Iraq's case in the world agenda and the
new developments in relation to the use of
power.
The book comprises of three parts in which
the recent developments are also included.
In the first part, the mechanism of the use
of power is analyzed under the title of "The
use of power in UN system". An introduction
is made in relation to the use of power system
before the UN; and the operation of the system
in UN is explained by historical cases in
this part. The organs of UN organization are
analyzed in this section, and the decision
making process for the use of power of Security
Council and General Assembly are illustrated
as per the procedural content with case studies.
Following these, we see the titles of Self
Defense, and the UN Agreement Provisions in
View of Current Events. This subject matter
is analyzed in two sections as UN Agreements
and Certain Cases and Subsequent Developments
after Cold War. In the first section, the
articles of the Agreement permitting the use
of power are analyzed. The explanations, related
to the Article 51 of the Agreement, are specifically
attracting attention. In the second section,
the provisions of the Agreement are analyzed
in the content of the developments recorded
following the disintegration of the Soviet
Union, the effects of Gulf Crisis, and the
effects of the September 11 attack. This section
is finalized with the explanations on UN Peace
Force and Regional Arrangements.
In the second part of the book, the use of
power is studied with the Gulf Crisis example.
Beginning with Iraq's invasion of Kuwait,
Bozkurt presented the subject in this part,
the economic sanctions applied by UN and from
the use of power to ceasefire in a chronological
order. This systematic of the book enabled
the submission of everything related to the
subject to the reader, from A to Z. The human
factor, which is especially important in war
times in international law, is not forgotten,
and including historical development, the
human rights and humanitarian regulations
at pre-during and post Gulf Crisis are mentioned.
The Gulf Crisis is analyzed with all its dimensions
and also the intervention to Iraq, which became
one of the hottest subject of the agenda after
September 11 attack, is discussed. The USA
administration announced that struggle with
terrorism shall continue after Afghanistan
and that was pointing the next step is going
to be the Iraq (p.183). The author, in that
context, touched on USA's possible intervention
to Iraq and analyzed its effects on Turkey,
which is also a very important matter for
Turkey. Significant sections of the resolution,
numbered 1441 and dated November 8, 2002 of
the Security Council, which was requested
by the USA, in order to legitimize an operation
against Iraq; are given at the end of this
section as it is. Bozkurt, while presenting
the resolution as it was, did not neglect
to add his interpretation as well. Bozkurt
pointed out that the resolution is related
to disarmament of Iraq rather than giving
USA the authority to use power, but indicated
also the request for the excessive use of
disarmament.
The title of the third part of the book is
"Terrorist Attack to USA and Intervention
to Afghanistan. The terrorist attack to USA
on September 11 has started a new era in the
world. This attack to the super power of the
world, increased the importance of "terrorism
and struggle against the terrorism" concept.
Terrorism, which caused great troubles for
many countries including Turkey for years,
became the hottest issue of the world's agenda
with this attack. In this book, Bozkurt started
this section by defining terrorism and conveying
the legal arrangements on this field. The
author perceives the lack of a commonly accepted
definition of the terrorism concept, as the
main obstacle for the elimination of terrorism.
(p.198) The overall prevention of terrorism,
which causes the death of several innocent
people, seems very difficult today. Bozkurt,
in his book, expressed his discomfort by pointing
out to the ruins of terrorism in national
and international arenas and continued his
study by analyzing meticulously the developments
in states and international organizations.
Especially, relative to the subject matter,
the topics and the goals of the resolution
numbered 1368, and the subsequent resolution
numbered 1373, dated September 12, 2001 of
the UN Security Council are also explained
in this section. Bozkurt also mentioned about
the contradictions of USA in the use of power
by relying on those resolutions. The developments
at NATO and the report on "The Prevention
of the financial sources of terrorism"
are given under the title of "The Developments
perceived in International Organizations"
in this section. In the light of developments
following the September 11 attack, the intervention
of USA to Afghanistan is analyzed with its
all dimensions in this book. The third part
of the book is finalized with Turkey's, as
a country of strategic importance, reactions
and policies related to September 11 attack
and intervention to Afghanistan.
The book, we tried to present you in brief,
analyses the legal dimension of the most important
issue of the world's agenda. Having very few
samples in Turkish literature, especially
the references related to the resolutions
numbered 1368, 1373, 1441, qualify Bozkurt's
study as a source book. As one of the few
studies in the field of international law
literature in Turkey, this book might lead
way to the new ones, on the issues explained
above.
Editor's
Note
